N05520:96
True grace, distinguished from the experience of devils; in a sermon, preached before the…
True grace, distinguished from the experience of devils; in a sermon, preached before the Synod of New-York, convened at New-Ark, in New-Jersey, on September 28. N.S. 1752. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Stockbridge in New-England. ; (Printed by the desire of the synod.) : [Four lines from II. Corinthians]
New-York: printed by James Parker, 1753
Title page typeset from the transcription.
TRUE GRACE, Distinguished from the EXPERIENCE OF DEVILS. › IMPROVEMENT.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Wicked, at the Day of Judgment, will see every Thing else in CHRIST, but his Beauty and Amiableness. There is no one Quality or Property of his Person, that can be Thought of, but what will be set before them, in the strongest Light at that Day, but only such as consist in this. They will see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven, in Power, and great Glory, in the Glory of his Father. They will have that View of his external Glory, which is vastly beyond what we can have any Imagination of: And they will have the strongest and most convincing Demonstrations of all his Attributes and Perfections. They will have a Sense of his great Majesty, that will be, as it were, infinitely affecting to them. They shall be made to know effectually, That he is the Lord. They shall see what he is, and what he does: His Nature and Works, shall appear in the strongest View. But his holy and infinite Beauty and Amiableness, which is all in all, and without which every other Quality and Property is Nothing, and worse than Nothing, they will see Nothing of.
The Wicked, at the Day of Judgment, will see every Thing else in CHRIST, but his Beauty and Amiableness. There is no one Quality or Property of his Person, that can be Thought of, but what will be set before them, in the strongest Light at that Day, but only such as consist in this. They will see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven, in Power, and great Glory, in the Glory of his Father. They will have that View of his external Glory, which is vastly beyond what we can have any Imagination of: And they will have the strongest and most convincing Demonstrations of all his Attributes and Perfections. They will have a Sense of his great Majesty, that will be, as it were, infinitly affecting to them. They shall be made to know effectually, That he is the Lord. They shall see what he is, and what he does: His Nature and Works, shall appear in the strongest View. But his holy and infinite Beauty and Amiableness, which is all in all, and without which every other Quality and Property is Nothing, and worse than Nothing, they will see Nothing of.
Therefore, 'tis a Sight or Sense of this that, is the Thing, wherein does fundamentally consist, the Difference between those Things in which the saving Grace of GOD's Spirit consists, and the Experiences of Devils and damned Souls. This is the Foundation of every Thing else that is distinguishing in true Christian Experience. This is the Foundation of the Faith of GOD's Elect. This gives the Mind a saving Belief of the Truth of divine Things. 'Tis a View of the Excellency of the Things exhibited in the Gospel, or Sense of the divine Beauty, and Amiableness of the Scheme of Doctrine there exhibited, that savingly convinces the Mind, that it is indeed divine, or of GOD. This Account of the Matter is plainly implied: